


Rarepair Collection

by Ciwu



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Crit Role Rarepair Week, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 10:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7505275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciwu/pseuds/Ciwu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of the one-shots I wrote this week for Crit Role Rarepair Week over at Arkhamarchitecture on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No Romo: Grog/Keyleth, workout buddies

Grog is not the sort of guy who yelps. He bellows, he roars, he howls, and he’s even been known to scream on occasion. But yelping? No.

Which is why everyone is so startled when a surprised yelp rings out across the training room.

The twins whip around from across the room where they’ve been making increasingly improbable bullseyes on the target dummies and Percy and Scanlan jerk their heads up from where they were sitting calmly on the lip of the sand ring, Scanlan reading and Percy cleaning Bad News. 

On the other side of the training room, Grog is clinging desperately to the metal bar he’s been doing pull ups on for the better part of half an hour. Clinging to _him_ , is a familiar looking earth elemental.

It’s honestly impressive that Grog hasn’t fallen yet.

Percy recovers from his surprise the fastest. “Keyleth, what are you doing? Let go of him!”

“No!” Grog yells. His arms are shaking. “She’s. Helping. Me.” He’s panting between each word.

“Helping you what? Dislocate your arms?” Scanlan asks incredulously.

“She. Wasn’t. Heavy. Enough.” Grog’s arms shake harder.

“Let me get this straight,” Vex says, looking amused, “Keyleth was helping you work out, but you decided a half elf didn’t weigh enough, so you jumped straight to a thousand pounds of solid rock?”

“I. Can. Do. It.”

Grog blatantly cannot do it. Titanstone Knuckles or no, he can’t drag both himself and an earth elemental clinging to his back into a pull up.

It takes ten more seconds of fascinated silence before Grog’s arms give out.

Keyleth hits the ground first and only the short distance to the ground prevents her from leaving a crater in the floor of Scanlan’s mansion. Grog lands on top of her in what is not exactly a cushioned landing.

Grog’s arms are still shaking as he lays on top of her, wheezing for breath. “You’re a good workout buddy, Keyleth.”

Keyleth rumbles something that might be Primordial, but is probably just the sound of an earth elemental laughing.


	2. F/F: Pike/Cassandra, left behind in Whitestone

It’s strange, not having Percy around the castle. You’d think Cassandra would be used it, having not had him around for the past five years, and yet the little time she’s been able to spend with him has gotten her back into the habit of just expecting him to be there. Percy was always there for her as a child, though perhaps that was more because Cassandra was constantly underfoot and in his way than because he was watching out for her. They weren’t exactly the best of friends when they were children.

Still, it’s disappointing now when she opens the door to his room or his workshop and finds it empty. It isn’t as though she doesn’t know he’s gone - she saw him and the rest of Vox Machina off to the Feywild just this morning. But somehow, when she walks into the library, she simply expects to see him lounging in their father’s old wingback chair, reading or napping or somesuch. 

Her eyes are instinctively drawn to the chair as she enters, but Percy is, of course, not there. Which is not to say that it’s unoccupied.

Rather, sitting in the chair is one Pike Trickfoot, eyes screwed up tight and looking extremely frustrated.

“Are you alright?”

Credit where credit is due, Pike doesn’t jump. She only sighs heavily and opens her eyes.

“Well don’t stop on my account.”

“No, it’s alright. It wasn’t working anyway,” Pike says dejectedly.

Cassandra moves closer, curiously. “What were you trying to do?”

“Do you remember when we were fighting the Briarwoods?”

There’s a distinct pause as Cassandra arches an eyebrow slowly and Pike seems to realize what she said.

“Er, I mean, of course you do, that was dumb, I’m sorry. I mean - do you remember how I wasn’t really there? But I was there? Because I was astrally projecting?”

“You mean how you were a glowing beacon of light that helped purge a demon from my brother’s soul? Yes, that’s a memory that stands out a bit,” Cassandra deadpans.

Pike flushes bright red. “Well I wasn’t - I mean, I guess I - Anyway, the point is, I was trying to do it again. Even if it’s not for very long, I’d like to be able to at least check on them in the Feywild, you know?” 

Cassandra’s face softens and she forces herself to let go of her natural de Rolo instinct to be a sarcastic little shit. Pike is just worried about her family, and who can blame her? Cassandra’s worried too. Nothing frightens her more than the idea that she might have to bury her brother so soon after getting him back.

And Pike is - Pike is a good person, Cassandra has found. She’s spent more time with Pike than any other member of Vox Machina, other than her brother. They both keep getting left behind and both of them are a little hurt by it, as much as they know they’re needed in Whitestone.

And Cassandra might be a little more interested in her than is perhaps prudent. She doesn’t know how to bring it up, nor if she should. Cassandra has no basis for how to behave in this situation - her childhood crushes seem so far away now and it’s been a long time since she had anyone she felt she could talk to about boys or girls.

But Pike looks unhappy and that at least, Cassandra may be able to help with.

“Well, how did you do it the last time?”

“I was in the temple of Saranrae in Vasselheim and I just - I had a vision that my friends needed me, so I prayed, and I meditated, and suddenly there I was.”

Well, perhaps a change of venues then.

It’s no effort at all to get into the temple of Pelor. Renovations are underway but Cassandra is the Lady of Whitestone and what good is a title if you aren’t going to use it to get your way on occasion? She has the workers clear out of the temple for a bit (they seem grateful for the break) and when she returns from ushering them out, she finds Pike sitting on the floor near the altar.

“I could get you a chair, you know.”

Pike smiles serenely, closing her eyes. “This is good, this is very good, Cassandra. Thank you so much.”

Cassandra sits down in front of Pike and takes her hands. “No, thank you. For looking out for my brother, both then and now. Keep him safe in the Feywild for me, if you can?”

“I’ll certainly try.”

Cassandra raises one of Pike’s hands up to her mouth and kisses the back of it. “And yourself, as well.”

Pike opens one eye and peers at her. Then she smiles beatifically. “I don’t think I’ll be in any danger as an astral projection, but I’ll make sure I come back safe and sound so we can talk about that.”

Cassandra can’t help but smirk. “I look forward to it.”


	3. M/M: Scanlan/Gern, no really

This is dumb, this is so dumb, why is he doing this? Scanlan is so rarely into guys at all and somehow his hindbrain spotted Gern and thought “Yes, that’s the scaly piece of shit I want to make out with.”

Dragonborn can’t even kiss right - they don’t have lips or the mouth structure for it. So it’s mostly Scanlan sitting in a bemused Gern’s lap and pressing kisses to his snout, fingers clutching his shoulders.

Not that Gern doesn’t seem to be enjoying it. There are claws digging into his hips and every so often his long, long tongue flicks out and catches Scanlan’s face. It’s not slimy like Scanlan expects it to be. It’s mostly dry and warm, and Scanlan can smell ozone every time Gern’s mouth opens.

Likewise, Gern’s scales are soft and - not quite hot? The only dragonborn Scanlan has to compare Gern to is Tiberius and Tiberius ran very hot but Scanlan never knew if it was because he was a dragonborn or because he was a _red_ dragonborn. Likewise, he isn’t sure if Gern is less warm because he’s blue or if it’s because he’s a short, skinny necromancer.

Speaking of which.

“Could kinda do without the audience,” Scanlan mutters against Gern’s cheek.

Gern huffs out a laugh and it crackles like static. “What audience? Rob and Cranberry aren’t smart enough to be voyeurs.”

Gern’s latest pets are not exactly popular in Whitestone for obvious reasons and Gern is somehow totally oblivious to it. Scanlan would even be concerned that he actually got them from the Whitestone graveyard if he thought the Briarwoods hadn’t already raised any possible bodies. They can’t even be new bodies because Whitestone has gotten into the habit of cremating their dead.

Regardless, sitting on the edge of the woods trying to make out with an overgrown lizard while two zombies keep watch is not exactly Scanlan’s idea of a great first date. And Scanlan doesn’t usually _do_ dates, so his expectations are pretty low.

Scanlan sighs. “Maybe we could just go to your cabin instead?”

Gern’s eyes go wide and that’s - well that’s not really what Scanlan meant but…

Well, dates are for suckers anyway. Why not skip a few steps. At least a tryst with Gern can’t result in a kid surprising him twenty years later.


	4. Fluff: Pike/Percy, bathing together

Here’s the truth: When you’re an adventurer, nakedness becomes kind of a nonissue.

When you’ve been stomping through the woods chasing a marauding band of orcs and you happen to come across a lake, nobody’s first thought is “Oh no, I don’t want my friends to see my bits.” Instead, your first thought is “Oh thank the gods, because I smell like an outhouse somebody threw up in.”

It becomes even less of an issue for Pike when you consider how often she has to take someone’s shirt or pants off in order to heal an injury (an injury Scanlan, an injury - if you don’t stop taking your pants off without an injury then _you will be provided one_ ).

So it would not be an exaggeration to say that everyone in Vox Machina has seen everybody else’s business and dangly bits. They may politely avert their gaze when they can, but at the end of the day, it’s just anatomy and sometimes you just can’t be bothered.

Percy was the longest holdout because of course he was. In retrospect, Pike thinks it had more to do with all the scars littering his body than his modesty (though that was certainly part of it). Pike never needed to be told that Percy had been tortured - too many of his scars are methodical and deliberate, laid out with medical precision. Pike’s been a healer for a very long time. Battle scars do not look like Percy’s scars do.

Even with all that though, it took less than a year for Percy to give in. But that’ll happen when you spend a solid three weeks in a bog and you emerge from the other side of it to find a clean, cool river. Even Grog had waded in for a rinse, and Grog never bathed.

So when Pike walks into the spa in Scanlan’s mansion to find Percy already there, it doesn’t give her pause before disrobing and stepping in.

(Okay, it gives her a little pause, but only because she’s admiring the long line of his throat as he tilts his head back against the edge of the bath to glance at her.)

“Good evening, Pike,” Percy says sleepily.

“Hey, Percy. Are you enjoying yourself?”

His eyes are hooded with exhaustion but he’s definitely watching her. His glasses aren’t on so it isn’t as though he can see her clearly, which is a little disappointing, but Pike knows that his lack of glasses are the only reason he hasn’t turned away yet. It gives her a nice view of his eyes though. Percy has such pretty blue eyes.

It takes a beat longer than usual for Percy to realize she asked him a question. “Yes, it’s rather nice in here, though I’m afraid it’s putting me to sleep.”

Pike ducks her head underwater for a moment to wet her hair. She half expects Percy to be getting ready to leave when she comes back up, but he hasn’t moved an inch and he’s still watching her.

“It’s been a long day,” Pike says. In lieu of anything else to say, she adds, “Your hair is starting to grow out.”

Percy blinks owlishly, then raises a hand to rake it through his hair. His undercut has grown out and the top isn’t quite long enough to get into his eyes, but it’s getting close and Pike’s pretty sure that it’s going to get in the way of his shooting soon.

Percy apparently agrees, “You’re right. Vax is usually the one who cuts it though, and he’s still not very happy with me. I haven’t been brave enough to tempt him to hold a blade near my head recently.”

Ah, that explains a lot. To the best of Pike’s knowledge, Vax hasn’t been truly angry with Percy for some time now, but it’s in Percy’s nature to assume his friends hate him. Which hurts, but it hurts Pike’s heart more to know that Percy seems to consider them perfectly in the right to hate him.

“Would you like me to cut it for you?”

“Would you?” Percy asks, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Of course,” Pike says, and swims to the side of the path to gesture at one of the spectral servants. “Can you get me a razor?”

The servant bows and floats off.

Pike swims closer to Percy, then hauls herself out of the bath to sit on the edge next to where he’s resting his head. Percy realizes a moment too late that her nearness means he can see her just fine and he averts his gaze with a shy blush.

Gods, he’s adorable.

She pulls him gently into a better position with her sitting on the edge of the pool, his head between her knees and her legs over his shoulders. She’s imagined him in this position before, but not with him facing the other way. Percy’s blush has spread from his cheeks all the way to his ears. It seems the position is not lost on him either.

The servant returns with a razor and Pike focuses on the task at hand.

Pike cannot pretend to be as good at cutting hair as Vax is, but Percy’s usual hairstyle isn’t that complicated. Shave down the sides and trim the top so it doesn’t block his field of view.

Percy’s blush fades away as strands of white hair fall into the water around him. Pike takes her time so as to keep the sides even and to make sure she doesn’t nick him by accident. And perhaps just so she can have him between her legs for a little longer.

Pike isn’t sure how much time passes before she’s done. All she knows is that Percy’s breathing has evened out and he is sound asleep, leaning his cheek on her knee. She combs her fingers gently through his now-shorter hair and bends over enough to press a kiss to the side of his head.

She’ll just let him sleep a few minutes longer.


	5. Angst: Cassandra/Kaylee, after the fall

The Cinder King is dead. 

There will be celebrations all over the world, from Marquet to Vasselheim, everyone grateful to the heroes who saved them from the Chroma Conclave.

There are no celebrations in Whitestone though. It isn’t that they aren’t grateful, because they are. Vox Machina has done so much for Whitestone, they hardly even know where to begin thanking them. Perhaps they can start with honored tombs in the de Rolo family crypt.

Most of them had nowhere better to go, Cassandra thinks. The twins certainly would have no desire to see their bones returned to Syngorn. Scanlan never called any place home save Greyskull Keep, but Emon is too far gone to rebuild. Grog and Pike would have perhaps preferred to be interred in Westruun, but Thordak turned them to ash anyway - their tombs are ceremonial and empty

Percival’s tomb was planned and crafted before he was even born. Cassandra is now the only unburied de Rolo. She has run out of tears for her family. There’s nothing left.

Cassandra was not prepared to bury her brother so soon after getting him back.

She is far from the only person who doesn’t seem to know what to do. Gilmore wanders the castle looking gutted. Allura’s gaze seems permanently stuck in the middle distance. Kima murmurs prayers under her breath and does not appear to get much response. Only Kashaw and Zahra seem able to find any purpose, pouring all their energies into caring for the gravely wounded Keyleth.

Kaylee, a relatively new arrival to Whitestone, having been brought over only after the wards were completed, has taken to following Cassandra around like a sullen shadow.

Cassandra can’t imagine why. If Kaylee intends to kill her then Cassandra rather hopes she does it soon. An actual knife in her back would be a marvelous distraction from the agony.

Cassandra wanders her castle (and it is now exclusively _her_ castle, Percival will never be the Lord of Whitestone, but Cassandra thinks he never planned to be anyway) for days with Kaylee at her heels. She wanders from the towers, to the grounds, out to the town, back into the castle and everywhere except for the room Keyleth is being treated in.

She can’t look at Keyleth right now. It isn’t fair to her, but Keyleth isn’t awake to know she’s being avoided so Cassandra won’t feel guilty about it. Not when she’s busy feeling guilty that every time she passes Keyleth’s door, she wishes it was Percival lying wounded and Keyleth in the crypt.

Her brother wouldn’t be pleased with her for those thoughts, but he’ll just have to live with it. Or rather, he won’t.

Cassandra and Kaylee don’t speak until the fifth day when her wandering feet take her to the crypt. She leans against the tomb where her brother has been laid to rest, and she slides down it to sit heavily on the stone floor. 

Kaylee, for once, is not watching her. Her eyes are on a smaller tomb further down. Her voice is hoarse when she finally speaks. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?” Cassandra’s voice sounds flat even to her own ears.

“Act like it doesn’t bother you. I know it does, but I never see it in your face. You’ve never cried over him.” Kaylee’s own eyes are perpetually red, though Cassandra has never seen her cry either.

“I’ve had a lot of practice.”

Kaylee finally turns to look at her. “So it gets easier then? It stops hurting so much?”

“No,” Cassandra says. “You just get used to the pain.”

Kaylee is silent for a long time before she finally says, “It was only a few months ago that I was going to kill him myself. I hated him so much. I don’t understand how he could die on me just as soon as I managed to love him.” There’s a hitch in her breath and Cassandra almost doesn’t hear her whispered words, “Especially when he promised he wouldn’t.”

Cassandra has never heard Kaylee’s story before, has never known who she is beyond Scanlan’s daughter, and it’s such a familiar refrain that she starts laughing. Kaylee looks alarmed and rightfully so because it’s only seconds into the laughter that Cassandra chokes on it and the tears start.

She thought she was _done_ , she thought this was over with. She has cried so many tears for her family over the years that she thought she had run dry. But it seems she hasn’t. There’s still enough left in her to cry for Percival. For all the apologies she never offered him and all the forgiveness she never granted him.

Kaylee moves closer, sits on the ground next to her, and tucks herself into Cassandra’s side, silent and understanding and patient as the grave.


	6. AU: Vax/Percy/Vex, a lucky find

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one might get continued as a full fic, not sure yet.

After they find Byroden in ruins, the twins wander north. They have no particular destination in mind but it’s easy enough to hop from town to town. Vax does odd jobs in town when they’re available, steals when they aren’t, and Vex hunts game in the woods outside of towns with her rapidly growing bear cub.

It’s when they’re in between towns that they find him, washed up on a river bank and badly wounded. At first, they assume he’s dead. It’s only when Vex goes to pat him down (look, the dead have no use for valuables) that she realizes he’s still breathing.

Looting the dead and looting a gravely injured man (child really, once they get a better look at him, he can’t be more than a teenager) are two entirely different things. The twins haul him up between them and drag him to a cave they’d passed to make camp.

It takes two days for the boy to wake up. Two days of carefully dripping water into his mouth, keeping the fire stoked to warm him, and Vex using her _very_ rudimentary magical capabilities to try and heal him. It’s also two days of listening to his nightmares. If the twins hadn’t felt bad for him before, they certainly do now after listening to his whimpers and whines of fear. The only word he ever utters though, is “Cassandra”.

Vex and Trinket are out hunting when the boy wakes up. Vax thinks it’s probably for the best, as waking up to find yourself in a cave with a bear would be pretty alarming for most people. Vax is sitting across the fire from him, whittling a chunk of driftwood. The only thing he’s making out of it is a smaller piece of driftwood, but it’s just something to do with his hands anyway. Vax is lost in his own thoughts when he glances up and sees a pair of blue eyes watching him and Vax jerks so hard he ends up throwing the driftwood straight into the fire.

The blue eyes go wide and he scrambles back against the cave wall.

“Sorry! Sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Vax says frantically, dropping his knife and holding up his hands. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

The boy stares at him, breathing heavily.

Vax and Vex have not actually planned what happens once the kid wakes up. If asked, they might have said they were hoping for a reward for helping him. The clothing they found him in was tattered and ruined but it looked like it had been elegant once. He might have come from money but then again, the twins used to have elegant clothing too when they lived in Syngorn, and that didn’t mean they had any money themselves. Truthfully, the twins were helping him for the same reason they had saved a bear cub from poachers when they could barely feed themselves - it wasn’t in their nature to abandon someone who needed them.

“My name is Vax’ildan. My sister, Vex’ahlia, and I found you washed up on the river a bit north of here.”

“Was -” the boy’s voice is hoarse and he immediately starts coughing as soon as he tries to speak. Vax grabs his waterskin and approaches him slowly. The boy presses his back against the wall, then immediately hisses and jerks away from it.

“Yeah, hey, you’re still hurt. Don’t do that, buddy,” Vax says quietly. He tosses the waterskin gently rather than get too close. The boy catches it with only a slight fumble. “Drink slow or you’ll make yourself sick. What’s your name?”

The kid doesn’t _quite_ chug the water down but it’s close. When he’s finished with the water, he looks queasy, which - hey, Vax told him to drink slowly. His voice is still raspy when he manages to speak. “Was there anyone else?”

Vax blinks. “We found you washed up on the side of a river bank. Should there have been someone else?”

The boy’s eyes go distant and his mouth parts, but nothing comes out.

“Hey.” Nothing. “Hey, kid.” Still nothing. Vax reaches over to the kid's face and snaps his fingers, and the kid jerks violently. “What’s your name?”

He opens his mouth, closes it, then after a long moment, he finally says, “Percival.”

“Just Percival?”

Percival nods sharply.

“Okay. Can I call you Percy?”

He stares for a moment, then shrugs. Percy it is.

~

Percy is _extremely_ opposed to heading north. The twins had no real destination in mind so the change in direction isn’t that big of a deal, but they don’t find out why until they’re three towns away.

They don’t intend to stop in the town. Percy doesn’t do very well around other people but Vex has decided it’s finally time to trust Percy with a weapon and she remembers that the last time they passed through this town, there was a reasonably priced blacksmith.

Vax stays out in the woods with Percy and Trinket, while Vex heads into town to find their new stray something to defend himself with.

The smith recognizes her as soon as she enters and beams. “Back already eh? How’s that dagger working out for you?”

Vex pastes a smile on and says, “Oh he loves it, darling. Decided we’d rather head south instead though.”

“Can’t blame you there. Bit of an uproar in the north nowadays.”

“Oh?”

“The de Rolo family is dead,” he says, like it’s supposed to mean something to Vex.

“Sorry, who?”

The smith actually stops hammering on his anvil to look up at her. “You don’t know? No, I guess you wouldn’t, not being from these parts.” He heaves a great sigh and goes back to his work. “The de Rolo family ruled the biggest town in the north, Whitestone. Good people. Hate to see ‘em go.”

An ill feeling is working its way through Vex’s stomach. “What happened to them?”

“Plague, I hear. Took out the whole family, from the Lord Frederick himself down to their littlest one. Ah, what was her name? Kestrel?”

“Cassandra?”

“Aye, that’s it. Poor thing, couldn’t have been more than 12.”

Cassandra. _Cassandra_.

Vex hums and pretends to inspect a rack of swords. With feigned disinterest, she asks, “Was it a large family then?”

“Oh yes. Seven children, phaw, can you believe that? I’ve got just the one and I can hardly keep up. Suppose when you’re a noble you can pay people to handle your kids for you though,” the smith says with a chuckle.

“Seven! Goodness, do you even know all their names?”

The smith snorts, “Probably not, but let’s see. There was Cassandra, like you said, that was the youngest one. Oldest was Julius, I know, he was set to inherit. Already married with a kid on the way, lost them too. Oldest girl was Vesper, probably due to get married herself. The middle ones though, I ain’t sure about them. There were two boys and then a set of twins, girl and a boy.”

Vex’s heart clenches. “The boys would have been teenagers then?”

“Aye, real shame. So many young lives lost.” The smith shakes his head, then brightens, “But what can I do for you this time?”

It couldn’t be, could it? Percival sounds like a noble’s name, but his wounds certainly didn’t come from any plague. He was muttering in his sleep about someone named Cassandra but -

Vex isn’t sure she wants to ask him. Percy rarely speaks as it is and he spends a lot of time lost somewhere in his own head. He has nightmares almost every night. Whatever he’s running from is no disease, so either he isn’t a de Rolo or... or he is and it was no plague that killed his family.

Vex picks a longsword almost at random, pays without haggling, and leaves quickly. They need to get out of the north.

~

Syldor refers to Percy as their “pet human”, which, first of all, rude. Second of all… not _entirely_ inaccurate.

Vex and Vax only wrote to him in the first place in the hopes that he might have some insight into what happened in Whitestone, but it turns out that the ambassador neither knows nor cares what happened in “some petty human political conflict”.

It’s not like petty political conflicts are his job or anything.

At any rate, Percy does more or less belong to them. They’ve struggled to find ways to tell him that if he wants to leave, he can, without somehow implying that they want him to go away. They don’t want him to go anywhere, of course, but they also don’t want him to feel like a prisoner.

It’s just - they’ve become accustomed to redirecting his attention when it wanders to silent memories, to making sure he doesn’t forget to eat just because he’s too lost in his own world, and to holding him when he can’t breathe for fear of _something_. 

They’ve become accustomed to sleeping with him pressed between them as well. It’s the only way to calm his nightmares, which haven’t stopped after almost two years. The twins know more about him from the things he whimpers in his sleep than anything he’s ever directly told them.

Vex and Vax don’t know who Ripley is or what exactly she did, but if they ever find her, it’s going to be ugly.

Syldor tells them to leave him somewhere with people who can take care of a traumatized human. Because of course that’s _his_ solution - to just leave and make it someone else’s problem.

Percy is _theirs_ and more importantly, he’s _Percy_. He’s getting better every day (alright, the nightmares aren’t), even if his hair has ended up turning white from stress. When he does speak, he’s witty and dry. He’s sweet to Trinket and is just as protective of the twins as they are of him. He’s turning out to be a decent swordsman and a phenomenal shot with a crossbow.

And in the last town they passed through, Percy quietly asked Vex if they could buy some small tools for him to work on the crossbow with! Percy! Asking for things! That he wanted! Vax nearly wept with joy and Vex would honestly have bought him a fucking pony if that’s what he had wanted.

Syldor can go fuck himself. For a variety of reasons, but especially this one. If Percy wants to leave, then he can leave. But nobody gets to _take_ him from them. Not healers, not Syldor, not Ripley, and not any of the other beasts from his nightmare.


	7. Free For All: Percy/Keyleth, first times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place on an imaginary day slotted in between Keyleth getting kissed by Kashaw and Percy falling into a Briarwoods-induced pit of despair. There is no such time gap in canon so I made one.

Keyleth is lost, and she hates it. She’s never been kissed before and then Kash just - he came right up and - and then he left and Keyleth felt all tingly inside and wanting more but not knowing how to ask for more and _she doesn’t know what to do_. She hates not knowing what to do, which is frustrating because she almost never knows what to do.

She rolls it over in her head for the three days it takes for the other half of the group to get back from their mission. She could ask somebody. She can’t ask Tiberius, obviously, because what would he even know. And she can’t ask Vax because they just did the whole pretending-to-be-married thing and that was already awkward enough. Vex would just make fun of her and Pike is too busy and she’s definitely not asking Scanlan or Grog.

But, well, what are best friends for, right?

Tiberius wants to leave as soon as the rest of the group gets back and they all get actual _brands_ on their arms but he gets voted down. Vax wants to find a tattoo artist, and Scanlan and Grog want to go see Pike before they leave, and Vex wants to go check out some merchants. Tiberius fumes for a bit but he follows Vex when the party scatters, leaving Keyleth alone with Percy in the lobby of the Slayer’s Take.

Keyleth needs to talk to him but she is definitely not doing it right here. “Was there anything you wanted to do, Percy?”

Percy shrugs. “A nap would be nice. I’d like to see the Raven Queen’s temple at some point but maybe later.”

Keyleth exhales heavily with relief. “Great! Let me show you the rooms we’ve been staying in.” She grabs Percy by the hand and all but drags him down the hallway.

“Keyleth, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she says in a tone that’s just a little too high pitched.

Keyleth’s bedroom has been strictly hers for the past three days. All of the rooms have multiple beds in them, but the assumed sleeping arrangements have always been boys in one room and girls in another so Vax and Tiberius just left her to it. Keyleth locks the door behind them and Percy gets as far as dropping his gear on an unoccupied bed before she’s rushing directly into his arms.

Percy yelps and falls backwards onto the bed, dragging Keyleth down with him.

“Percy, why is everything so confusing?!” Keyleth wails against his chest.

Percy always hesitates to initiate physical contact but Keyleth knows he loves it. With Keyleth doing the initiating for him, it only takes a moment for him to wrap her up in his arms. “Alright, alright, calm down. What’s wrong, darling?”

“Kash kissed me.”

Percy’s arms twitch around her. In a deceptively cool voice, he asks, “Yes, you told us. Did you not want him to?”

Keyleth takes her face out of Percy’s chest to hook her chin over his shoulder instead. “I don’t know. I thought he didn’t like me. He spent the whole time we were working together telling me I was annoying. Then he just - did that and left.”

“He sounds like a bit of an asshole.”

Keyleth huffs a laugh in his ear.

Percy huffs right back, “Well he does. Kissing a girl and then just walking away.”

Keyleth is quiet for a moment before she finally says, “Percy, can I talk to you about something super embarrassing?”

“Is that not what we’re doing right now?”

“Kash was my first kiss,” she admits. “It was nice, I guess?”

“Well now he really sounds like an asshole,” Percy mutters, more to himself than Keyleth. “You guess it was nice?”

“I don’t have anything to compare it to.”

“Ah. Well, that’s -” Percy coughs, “We’re in a similar boat there so I… I understand.”

“Really?” Keyleth asks, with genuine surprise. Percy’s always struck her as so charming that surely he must have people falling all over themselves for him. She just assumed he was too polite to brag about it the way Scanlan and Grog do.

“Really,” Percy confirms. “I’m always busy with other things and it’s - it’s never seemed all that important?”

Keyleth pulls her head off his shoulder to look him in the eye. Her brow furrows. “Can I?”

Percy doesn’t even pretend not to know what she’s asking. He turns bright red and blinks rapidly behind his glasses. “If it will make you feel better, I suppose.”

Slowly, like approaching a deer in the woods, she leans in presses their mouths together. For a moment, it’s nothing - just weird and too close. Then Percy tilts his head and presses up into her and _oh_.

Her eyes flutter shut and her mouth parts slightly, enough for him to slip his tongue in and Keyleth can’t stop her gasp and the twitch of her hips against his.

Keyleth isn’t sure how much time passes before they pull apart. Both of them are now red in the face for entirely different reasons. Percy’s eyes are dark and his arms have drifted lower on her back. 

The tingling sensation from when Kash kissed her is back. “I thought you said you hadn’t done that before?”

Percy chuckles and his voice is rougher than usual when he says, “I did not say that. I said we were in a similar boat. I can’t say I’m especially experienced but I have done things.”

“Can you show me?” Keyleth blurts out.

Percy’s eyebrows shoot up but Keyleth is sitting in his lap so she can feel just how interested in the idea he is.

Keyleth licks her lips and Percy’s eyes are drawn to the flicker of her tongue. “I want to know. What it’s like. And I’d like it to be with someone I trust.”

“Not someone you love?”

“I love you plenty. And I know you love me. Maybe not in that way but honestly I spent an hour pretending to be married to Vax and it was awful, so I’d really rather do this with my best friend than anybody who might have an awkward crush on me.”

Percy doesn’t quite manage to restrain his laughter and he has to press his face into her neck to quiet his giggles.

“Did that make sense?” Keyleth asks worriedly.

“Perfect sense, darling,” Percy says and presses a kiss to her throat. He reaches over to the bag of gear he left on the foot of the bed and shoves it off onto the floor unceremoniously. “Alright then, let’s see what we can learn together.”


End file.
